There
by CushiKitten92
Summary: When you know there's something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that's not there? A sequel to 'For the Better'
1. And It Begins

**Title:** And it Begins

**Summary:** When you know there's something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that's not there? A sequel to 'For the Better'.

**Disclaimer:** Even if you sue me, I don't have much. I already don't own HtTYD, what more do you want me to not own?

The winter months were hard in Burk. In particular, Hiccup recalled a winter when they had run out of food and had needed to eat a few leather boots to keep from starving. It had been the coldest winter he could remember. The sea around burke had been so cold that it took days to make a hole in the ice covering it.

'_Yup, I sure am lucky.'_ he thought. Because being cold was the farthest thing he could be right then.

He was sitting in on the floor, between a roaring fire and Toothless' warm body. The sky outside was a nondescript gray that gave just enough light for him to read _against_ the light of the fire. In a few hours, he'd have to turn around to keep reading. But right now, that seemed to require a herculean effort.

/_What are you reading?_/ Toothless yawned. Hiccup smiled and scratched him under the chin.

Some of the dragons around Burk had hibernated for the winter, something no one was surprised to find out they did. Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare, Firewyrm, had dug a hole in his backyard and fallen asleep in it weeks ago. Fishlegs' Gronckle, Horrorcow, had fallen asleep even before that, but without bothering to dig, just settled himself right outside the Ingerman house like a large rock. The Deadly Nadders apparently flew south for the winter. Sensing adventure, Astrid had left along with Gunter, her dragon, to the dismay of her parents. They were proud, but they worried, as parents were wont to do.

Hiccup's father, on the other hand, felt he had very little to worry about this winter. There was enough food to last until spring, and not needing to rebuild too many houses this year had left them with firewood that was easy to access from town. And as for Hiccup, well, he had Toothless, didn't he?

/_The new dragon... The new dragon..._/ he started. He was getting better at Dragonese, but some words still escaped him.

/_Book._/ supplied Toothless. Well, technically, the word was for anything that could be read, but it's not like dragons did a lot of writing anyway, so that would do.

/Book? Book? Book?/ Hiccup tried out the word, but to Toothless it sounded more like, /_Booooook? Buk? Bouk?_/. He laughed.

"Well, I'd like to hear you speak human!" Hiccup said mock indignant tones. Toothless opened his mouth…

…and blew him a raspberry.

"Ugh, gross!" Hiccup wiped the stray dragon saliva onto his friend, who was still laughing.

/The book?/ the Night Fury asked again.

"Oh, right!" Hiccup closed the book, keeping his finger between the pages as a bookmark. Then he shifted so he was draped across Toothless' neck.

"Me and Fishlegs, we're making a new dragon manual for the library, but we don't know much more than we did _before_, you know…"

/And how many dragons have you talked to?/ Toothless wiggled and Hiccup got off him long enough for him to scratch under his chin himself.

"Well…" Hiccup felt his face turning a bit red. _'Duh, ask them! Why didn't I think of that?'_

"Never mind!" he covered, getting to his feet. "Let's go outside, see what the others are up to."

Hiccup put the book in his bag, and headed outside. Toothless followed, a knowing smile on his face.

But just before they reached the door, Hiccup fell, clutching at his leg. He didn't get back up.

**A/N: **Again, I'm pretty sure the plot is transparent here. I hope you like it anyway.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you send feedback. I need to improve!


	2. Surprise!

**Title:** Surprise!

**Summary:** When you know there's something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that's not there? A sequel to 'For the Better'.

**Disclaimer:** Even if you sue me, I don't have much. I already don't own HtTYD, what more do you want me to not own?

Stoick the Vast was not an easy man to shock. He was known for laughing when dragons attacked him from out of nowhere. But as hard as he was to surprise, scaring him was approaching impossible. This was the man who had faced down the Night Fury with only a hammer.

That said, he was scared witless, coming home and opening the door, only to hear a thud, look down, and see his son on the floor.

Imagine his horror, when he realized his son wasn't moving.

Imagine how cold his son's body must have felt, and imagine how seeing his son's dragon looking as worried as he felt must have made his blood run cold.

Stoick didn't know this, but Toothless had tried to wake up Hiccup before. Hiccup had screamed, crying, and Toothless hadn't tried since. The dragon had tried to move Hiccup to his bed, but that had woken the boy up, and Toothless had stopped, and felt so helpless he wanted to cry.

He couldn't even wrap himself around his human without Hiccup whimpering, making it impossible for Toothless to tell if he was hurting the boy or not. Toothless had been reduced to trying to breathe warm air around Hiccup when Stoick had come home and had his heart try to jump out of his chest and attack him.

"What Happened?" Stoick asked Toothless, not really expecting an answer. He picked up Hiccup, and nearly dropped him when the boy started screaming and struggling.

While Stoick was glad for the sign of life, (he remembered how still Hiccup had been when they had cut off his leg) Toothless' ear-things went back. The Night Fury's pupils narrowed and he started growling.

"Not now, dragon. There's no time."

Stoick ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, Toothless hot on his heels. The thuds were eerily loud in the quiet house, and Stoick wished he hadn't left that morning, wished he'd come home earlier, wished he could talk to the dragon the way his son could so he could find out what happened. He wished he'd left his son's bed downstairs, for Thor's sake!

Stoick kicked open the door to Hiccup's room and put his son to bed. By now, Hiccup's cries had diminished into weak whimpers.

Stoick looked down at his son, and suddenly, the sight seemed to suck the strength right out of him. As Toothless watched, the huge Viking seemed to shrink until he was just a man who was worried he would have to outlive both his son and his wife.

Stoick put his face in his hands. "Odin." Was all he said. The Night Fury looked at Hiccup, who was still pale but at least calm and breathing evenly, and he looked at Stoick, who had tears leaking from between his fingers, who didn't make a sound as he cried and prayed for his son's life.

And for the first time, Toothless was torn as to who, at that moment, needed him more.

**A/N: **This one's pretty short, but I like I said, the shorter I let the chapters be, the sooner I update, and I'm still guilty for not uploading for a few days, so I'm trying to make up for it. Think of it this way, if I write longer chapter in the same time, the longer chapter would be a lot worse, with misspelled words and misplaced punctuation marks. Not that I don't do that already, but expect rushing to make it worse.

This chapter's pretty drama, but let's face it, this There's predecessor was pretty drama too, and I don't see why I should break the pattern thingy I've got going. If you want comedy, check out my other works, which I try to keep lighthearted enough.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read this and I value any and all feedback concerning my work. Until next time!


	3. Waiting

**Title:** Waiting

**Summary:** When you know there's something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that's not there? A sequel to 'For the Better'.

**Disclaimer:** Even if you sue me, I don't have much. I already don't own HtTYD, what more do you want me to not own?

Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtains of Hiccup's window, rousing the boy on the bed. Like every other morning, he shifted away from the light, waking up at his own pace. But as he remembered what had happened the day before, his eyes shot open. He sat up in his bed, panicking. Or tried to, at least. The was this _weight_ on his stomach, making him uncomfortably _warm…_

Hiccup looked down, and saw his father sleeping on a chair beside his bed, slumped over his lower half. On any other day, Hiccup would have found it funny: his father's comical snores, his lopsided and uncomfortable looking position of hanging half in-half out of Hiccup's bed, and the complaints which were certainly going to follow spending a night in such a position…

But Hiccup had always been more observant than most, and he immediately saw the dark half-circles under his father's eyes. For a few minutes, Hiccup debated whether he should awaken his father at all, but a cross between wanting to pee and wanting his father to be comfortable made his decision for him.

"Dad," Hiccup said softly, gently shaking Stoick's shoulder. "Dad, wake up."

The chief of the Hairy Hooligans made a few unintelligible sounds, using a huge hand to wave Hiccup away. He smacked his lips a few times, tried to get comfortable. Hiccup waited.

Suddenly, up! shot Stoick.

"Hiccup!" He shouted, and Hiccup winced at the volume. Stoick didn't notice. "You're— You're— Okay?" he was pleasantly shocked. The big Viking grabbed his son by the shoulders and gave him a big bear hug.

"Yeah, Dad," Hiccup laughed. "I'm okay." Well, actually, his legs were getting a bit numb from being lied on the entire night…

"What happened, son?" Stoick drew away, suddenly serious. Hiccup was a bit disconcerted by the switch in his father's demeanor, but he could sense the gravity of the situation (at the very least he could tell that was his dad's I'm Serious face.).

He rubbed at his arm, "Well…"

There was a pregnant pause. And then…

"Hey, Dad, where's Toothless?"

Stoick sighed. _'Attention span of a _flea._'_

Stoick held his son by the shoulders again. "_Focus_, Hiccup. What. Happened. Yesterday? "

But Hiccup wasn't having any of it. Seeing that he was now free, the boy swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He stood up.

And fell over.

Luckily, Stoick was expecting that and caught his son easily enough. The chief sat him back down, bracing himself for a conversation with his son. But Hiccup's face stopped him cold.

There was that look on his son's face. An expression that was incredulous and horrified and miserable at the same time. It was a face Stoick had never seen on his son before, and no matter how many times he saw it after, he'd never get used to it.

Hiccup seemed to realize he had been just sitting there for a while, and composed himself.

"Dad, _where_'s _Toothless_?" He asked again, voice infinitely more urgent. This time Stoick knew better than to not answer him.

"I sent him to get Ulandeir here by any means necessary. Why? Hiccup, what's going on?" Stoick was starting to worry again. He began poking Hiccup, checking for bruises and the like.

Stoick knew that Hiccup knew Ulandeir was Burk's best healer. But that didn't seem to calm him down one bit. Wiggling away from his dad's poking fingers, he tried to stand again. _That_ made Stoick stop for fear of accidentally knocking Hiccup over.

Hiccup gingerly took a step forward.

Then he took another one.

And as soon as he could tell his legs weren't going to give way, he hobbled as fast as he could to the door. And Stoick knew that was the end of _that_ conversation, if you could call it that. He stayed in the room, listening; he was waiting for Hiccup to make it down the stairs before he went down himself. He knew from experience how self-conscious being helped down made Hiccup, and how it embarrassed his son when anyone had to walk slower when behind him because he couldn't go down the stairs as fast as he used to.

Stoick put his head in his hands as the door to his house opened and shut. He had a feeling this wasn't over.

**A/N: **No, that's not a typo. You'll see…

Thanks for reading this woefully short chapter and, as always, I hope for feedback!


	4. Where's the Fire?

Title: Where there's smoke

Summary: When you know there s something wrong, you fix it, but how do you get rid of something that s not there? A sequel to For the Better .

Disclaimer: Even if you sue me, I don t have much. I already don t own HtTYD, what more do you want me to not own?

Tuffnut made his way to the dragon stables slowly. It was one of those rare moments; he was alone. There was no need to rush. Life in Burk during the winter months was boring. The ice that covered the sea for mile made it impossible to sail anywhere. And sailing was necessary when you wanted to become a pirate.

The stables were mostly empty now. The dragons that hadn't gone to sleep for winter had left. Tuffnut wished he could as well. Astrid had the right idea. But he was stuck here. Not only was he unwilling to spend months with only his sister (Thor help him) for company, Zipplebacks apparently didn't go anywhere during winter. They didn't even hibernate. They stayed the same way throughout the year.

As he neared the dragon stables, he caught sight of the much bigger structures behind it that he was on his way to work on. He was no construction worker (he was a pirate!), but building helped pass the time until he could feel the wind on face again (sea wind, not this biting cold one).

Building them had been Hiccup's idea (not surprisingly). They were sort of like houses for the dragons, but on top of each other. And made of stone. You could see why this was a problem. The Vikings of Burk had been building them for _years_, but nobody minded.

Tuffnut called, seeing Hiccup coming down the path.

"Hey! What s with the limp?" Hiccup hadn't limped in years.

"I tripped. It's fine. Get out of my way." was his reply

Ordinarily Tuffnut would have left it at that, but the curt answer irritated him. And worried him just a bit. It wasn't unknown for Hiccup to hide things, whether it was that a baby terror had burned his arm or what he'd eaten for breakfast.

Tuffnut remembered the terror incident. He'd been assigned babysitting duty for it.

"Whoa, where the fire?" the taller boy said, deliberately getting in the way. To surreptitiously glance the leg, but mostly to irritate the smaller boy.

It seemed to work. When Hiccup went left, Tuffnut went left. When he went right, Tuffnut followed. Hiccup exhaled heavily after a few minutes.

"I don't have _time_ for this!" And he pushed Tuffnut out of the way. Normally, Hiccup wouldn t have been able to budge Tuffnut, who must have been a good half foot taller and broader at the shoulder to boot. But Tuffnut was too bemused by the aggressiveness to put up any fight at all.

Hiccup passed and went on his way, obviously making an effort to stop limping. But he got too far away, he looked over his shoulder and _glared_ at Tuffnut. That took the taller boy aback. Was that an honest to goodness _glare_? Hiccup didn't _do_ glares.

Wow. Made you think.

And just as Hiccup went out of earshot, another thought occurred to Tuffnut. There was something missing

Where was Toothless?

A/N: I'm deviating a bit from the style I used in For The Better. There are a lot more chapters from other people, but I haven't crossed over into DatD territory by having pagebreaks and stuff.

It's really short, I know, but I m taking baby steps to get into the story. This one may be more dramatic and wangsty than its predecessor (If that s possible) so I want to ease everyone in and get it just right.

Special mention to **Caris L. Clearwater **for being such a prompt reader-reviewer and pointing out that all the apostrophes and quotation marks were missing so I could fix it right away. You rocks mah socks!

Thanks for reading and, as always, I would appreciate some feedback!


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